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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24243106">History</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/asoulofstars/pseuds/asoulofstars'>asoulofstars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Familiarity [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mentalist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canonical Character Death, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Pedophilia, Poisoning, Scars, Tattoos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:01:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,405</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24243106</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/asoulofstars/pseuds/asoulofstars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Riona finally tells Jane about her own experience with loss, and everything makes so much more sense to him now.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Patrick Jane &amp; Original Character(s), Patrick Jane &amp; Riona Gallagher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Familiarity [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749190</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>History</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Riona's worked with Patrick Jane for five years now. She's never told him about her little brother's death, because he has his own serial killer to track down. Jane gets about as close to saying "fuck" as he ever has. xD Takes place after 2x08.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riona wasn’t surprised when Jane sat in on Rebecca Anderson’s autopsy. She was decked out in protective gear to keep away from whatever had been used to make an otherwise healthy woman drop dead in the hallway, and she made Jane wear a mask. But now Rebecca’s body was gone, and they were both exhausted. It was just too close to home.<br/>
“Thank you for letting me sit in.” Jane broke the silence, rubbing a hand over his face.<br/>
“It’s Red John,” Riona replied. “It’s not like I could keep you away. Thank you for following my protocol instructions.”<br/>
He gave her a weak smile. “You’re only ever immovable on forensic protocols. Bodies at crime scenes are one thing, but an autopsy for someone who died from a toxic poisonous substance. I’m going to listen to you about that.”<br/>
Bodies at crime scenes. Riona kept a special rod in her pocket to prod at his rib cage whenever he got too close to bodies. He adapted, and now he mostly just beats her to the scene. She looked at him, half folded in on himself, and she knew that he needed a distraction.<br/>
Riona moved closer to Jane, and she rolled up her sleeves. “Tell me what you see.” She held her arms out to him, palms up.<br/>
Jane smiled a more genuine smile. “Well, I never thought you’d be one for tattoos. Love the colors on your infinity sign with the moons. Purple, blue, and red? A nod to the bisexual pride flag, correct?”<br/>
She nodded. “How’d you know that?”<br/>
He chuckled. “Please, you give Lisbon heart-eyes every time she comes up to a crime scene. Not to mention the way you look at Grace. Oh, that’s more than you just thinking she’s pretty, and I don’t know how she hasn’t realized it. You turn a delightful shade of pink whenever she says your name. It’s even worse than when you had a crush on me. Now I sit in the same category as Lisbon. Attractive, but not actually feelings-worthy. Our dear Grace, however, has stolen your heart.”<br/>
Heat filled Riona’s cheeks, and she pulled her arms back.<br/>
“Hey! I still have to get a good look at your tattoos.” He took her wrists gently and pulled her arms out again.<br/>
“The infinity sign goes back to what you said to me a long time ago. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. You really believe in that constant cycle, and that’s emphasized by the crescent moons on either side; the moon is never going to stop going through its phases, and it goes in both directions, growing and shrinking. I think it’s interesting you have the bisexual colors on this tattoo and not your shooting star. Shooting stars are temporary, though the stars are just as infinite. But you have more realistic colors here, the black and silver. I’m assuming silver as opposed to white since it’s easier to see?”<br/>
She nodded again. She was still a bit embarrassed about him calling out her feelings, but she did basically give him blanket permission. It was the first time she’d opened up to him like this, but she thought that now was as good a time as any. Four good agents murdered; a coworker was a Red John associate and had killed the others. They needed to know who they could trust, so she wanted to let him do what he did best and stop hiding some of her past from him.<br/>
“Riona, are these scars under your tattoos?” Jane’s thumbs ran over her forearms.<br/>
“Papa thought that it would be a deserving punishment to use me as an ash tray.” She gently pulled an arm from his grasp and pulled her blouse back from her shoulder. “Mama decided it wasn’t enough and held me up to a ceiling fan. Part of why it didn’t take much convincing last year when you wanted me to come get you from the hospital. The burnt body bits weren’t making my job easy emotionally.”<br/>
“Riona, what did they think they were punishing you for? What makes a parent think that this is okay? They tortured you.” Jane stared at her, blue-green eyes full of concern and anger.<br/>
“They were punishing me for letting my little brother die. Soll was…he was the light of my life. He and I were four years apart, and we were inseparable. I took care of him. I was twelve; he was eight. We went to the park. I was old enough to take him alone; it was Sunday, so Mama and Papa didn’t want to leave the house after church anyways. I was supposed to watch him. He managed to slip away before I realized it, and when I realized that he was gone, it was too late. I heard him scream for me. Rona. He couldn’t pronounce my name properly when he was little, and the nickname stuck. He was dead before I got to him. Throat slashed so deep it cut the bones. He bled out in seconds, Jane.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she moved back to wipe at her face.<br/>
But Jane’s arms encircled her, pulling her into a hug. She cried into his chest, crying not only for Soll, but for Bosco and the rest of the team. Jane ran his fingers through her hair with one hand and rubbed between her shoulder blades with the other. When she calmed down, she gave him an apologetic smile.<br/>
“Sorry,” she whispered.<br/>
“Don’t apologize for having feelings, Riona. The fact that you’re so open and honest about your emotions is one of your best qualities. But I have to ask…you’ve known my story since I started at CBI. Why has it taken you five years to tell me yours?”<br/>
Jane was looking at Riona like he was seeing her for the first time, and Riona swallowed.<br/>
“I haven’t told you because you have your own serial killer to hunt down. You don’t have to be a part of my closure, too.” She wiped at her eyes again.<br/>
“Is Soll’s killer a serial killer?” Jane asked, eyes hardening.<br/>
“I think so. I don’t know for sure. But there are other cold cases with similar knife wounds. We’ve had two boys since I started at CBI who have the same knife wounds, same age range, dark hair. He’s not just a serial killer, Jane. I know that. Most start as kidnapping victims. But Soll cried out for me. So he was just killed, because that was the only way his killer could get away.” She swallowed hard, more tears falling down her face.<br/>
“Riona, what is the point of me helping on cases if I can’t help people like you? This is why I push on cases. This is why I force the truth. I will help you get closure, Riona. I promise.” Jane took her hands in his own, and Riona sniffled.<br/>
“If I weren’t so snotty and teary, I’d kiss your cheek,” she said, half-laughing. “He has at least two cold cases. For me, closure doesn’t even mean justice. It just means knowing what his name is. If justice can happen, then that’s just a bonus. But I just need to know who killed my little brother.”<br/>
Jane kissed her forehead. “We’ll find his name. But I close cases, Riona. We’ll get justice. You’ll finally have closure.”<br/>
“And what about your closure, Jane? What about Red John?” she asked.<br/>
“He’ll have to kill me himself if he wants me to stop hunting him.” His eyes were dark again.<br/>
She gave him a small smile and wrapped her arms around him again. “Thank you.”<br/>
“Thank you for finally telling me. Everything makes so much more sense now. I’ve spent five years wondering why you understand my need to get Red John better than anyone else, and even though I knew you had trauma in your past, I never suspected anything like this. It’s all clicking now.” Jane held her close. “Also, don’t ever let me near your family.”<br/>
“They’re not my family anymore. My friend, Aislinn, back in Massachusetts and her mom and siblings are my family. All of you here at CBI. You’re my family, Jane. And I’ll help you however I can.”<br/>
“Just sit with me for a while longer?” he asked.<br/>
“Of course,” she replied and nuzzled him, resting her ear against his heart.</p>
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